


A Series of Unrelated Events

by spaceshipdear



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Romantic Comedy, Deal With It, Drabble Collection, Expect a lot of angst, F/M, Modern AU, Post-War, Reunions, Sorry Not Sorry, Steggy - Freeform, Steggy Secret Santa, but i have too many ideas, i don't have time to write, main focus on Peggy and Steve, most of these drabbles aren't finished, steggy reunion, tumblr drabble collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-11 17:37:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9000271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipdear/pseuds/spaceshipdear
Summary: This is a collection of drabbles I usually post on Tumblr (username: founderofshield). Most of them are just fanfic ideas I don't have the time to write so it's mostly just quick drabbles. Modern day AUs, lots of Steggy reunions, some scenes I randomly write when I should be sleeping.Nothing's beta'd and I'm not a native english speaker, so yeah sorry.





	1. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve finds out that Peggy is still alive in the 21st century, but she's not exactly the woman he used to know. Lots of angst and mentions of Bucky (and torture).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted here with it accompanying manip: http://founderofshield.tumblr.com/post/153057623896/together-before-the-battle-of-new-york-steve

**Together**

Before the Battle of New York, Steve found the old files of his comrades from the war. ‘DECEASED’ the dreadful faced-red stamp he kept seeing across all of them. All of them but one. The ache in his heart transformed into the shocking hope of the prospect to see her again. Peggy was still alive. _Still alive_. The words didn’t exactly registered in his brain but his eyes were already scanning the document to find an current address. There was none. Nothing since 1958. No MIA mentioned, no transfer. It’s like she vanished. Fury came along to offer him a mission the following day.

After saving the world from the Chitauri attack, Steve went back to his Brooklyn apartment with one single thought in mind: find what happened to the woman he loved.

With the help of Natasha and, for some reason Tony, he went on a ghost chase. Tony hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. servers and they found recent information of a mission Peggy had supposedly worked on just a month from then. She should be over 90 years old. How? How was it possible she was still working for S.H.I.E.L.D.? With enough evidence Steve confronted Fury and the man finally caved to reveal a tale Steve was having a hard time to believe, even after seeing the sky open to pour an alien army on Earth.

She was indeed still alive but furthermore was experienced on by HYDRA and now aging so slowly she barely looked 35 years old. Fury didn’t even have a chance to say more when Steve stormed out of the room, her location written on a piece a paper and started running through Manhattan to stop in front of a fancy building in the Upper East Side.

When she opened the door, she practically was the spitting image of herself back in 1945. Her face, her body, her hair, her hands, everything was the same and Steve remained silent in shock when she offered him to get inside. Her eyes though, her eyes were different. Something harder was darkening them.

She didn’t seem surprised to see him here, barely taken aback.

‘You knew I was back.’ He said as he stood in her living room but it wasn’t really a question.

‘I knew.’ She answered calm as water and strong as iron.

‘Why? Why didn’t you came to find me?’

‘I’m not the same woman you knew. I’ve changed. I’ve had 70 years to change and to mourn you. I couldn’t barged into your life.’

‘So this is it? This is you telling me you moved on?’

‘Oh no I haven’t moved on. Never.’ A sad smile appeared on her face.

‘Then why?’

‘Your responsibilities go beyond your country now, the world needs you. I cannot interfere.’

‘This is bullshit.’

He took a step to close the space between them, grabbed her waist with both hands and pulled her against the full length of his body. He could see her harden features break and her breath catch as she swallowed hard. When he kissed her, Peggy’s body went almost slack in his arms and her moans sounded like pain and relief.

Two weeks later she still refused to see him again after their painful reunion. But the arrival of another ghost of their past forced them to team up to fight together. Everyone said the Winter Soldier was a legend but the look on her face when Fury briefed them after the first reports of his attacks came in told Steve she knew more.

She didn’t have to reveal his identity, Steve found out when he fought him on the highway. Coming back from the fight he stormed in her office, in the lower basement of the Long Island S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.

‘You knew.’

‘I wasn’t sure.’ She barely lifted up her eyes from her computer.

‘You should have told me!’ He smashed his hand on her desk and it startled her briefly before her composure came back to her stoic self.

‘If I had told you, you would have run head down to him. And he is dangerous. Like I said, I can’t interfere.’

‘Well, whether you want it or not Fury has asked us both to find him. To bring him back.’

‘It’s foolish. We’re both way too emotionally involved in this case.’

‘Don’t fucking refer to him as a case! And emotionally really? Are you sure you’re still capable of that?’

It was a low blow, even in the light of how their relationship was right now. She looked up straight in his eyes.

‘You know nothing about what I had to go through during the last decades. This is as much my fight as it’s yours.’

He remained silent trying to read through her but she was right. He had no idea who she was anymore. All he knew was that she had intel, a lot more than he thought initially and she certainly wanted to find Bucky as much as he did.

‘We have to do this together.’

‘I know how to be a professional Steve. This is my mission too, I’ll help you the best I can.’

‘That’s not what I’m talking about Peggy. This is— this is different. It’s Bucky.’

He heard his own voice breaking when saying his name and he hated himself to appear so weak in from of her. But it changed something in the way she looked at him. Her eyes soften and he swore he saw hurt and tenderness in them.

‘Steve—’ She paused and walked around the desk. ‘I failed him too. In 1958 I discovered he hadn’t been killed on that train. I discovered he was held by HYDRA. Experimented on. I tried to go and save him but I failed. I got caught too.’ She stopped as her breathing was getting labored. She dropped her head to the ground.

Steve put his hand on her waist and looked down trying to look into her eyes.

“Peggy… it’s not your fault.’

‘It could have been me.’ She suddenly said locking her eyes with his with raw honesty this time. ‘I could have become this monster too. If it wasn’t for that woman from my past— it could have been me. She worked in the red room. I still don’t understand why but she saved me. She extracted me before they could brainwash me and turn me into a killer.’

Steve pulled her into his arms and she welcomed the embrace without a fight.

‘Let’s save him. You and me. We’ll save him.’ He whispered in her hair.

 


	2. A Vermeer Muse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steggy Modern Day AU Christmas Rom-Com
> 
> Peggy moves to NYC. She’s about to spend Christmas alone for the first time, but it turns out this is going to be quite a surprising holiday…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr for as my Steggy Secret Santa 2016 gift for @beautifulwhensarcastic: http://founderofshield.tumblr.com/post/154936674556/my-steggy-secret-santa-gift-for

Peggy just moved to Manhattan from London to start a new life after she left her fiancé Fred at the altar. It obviously led into a fight with her family and decided she had enough of being told how to leave her life. She starts a new job at this tech company in Brooklyn. It’s way underpaid and she’s far too experienced for this position but it’s a collaborative art platform and she loves the idea.

Steve Rogers, the founder and CEO, is a thirty-something heir to a rich Manhattan family who decided to play entrepreneur. He’s way too handsome to be honest and she’s pretty sure he sleeps with every women he encounters. She avoids him as much as she can.

It’s almost Christmas and she always loved the season. She decorates her shitty apartment and puts fake presents at the bottom of the tree to fill the void of loneliness from being away and not talking with her family at this time of the year.

A few days before Christmas at the coffee shop down her work building she literally runs into Steve and he pours his drink all over her favorite Christmas jumper. He wants to apologize and offers her another coffee. They start talking and she realizes maybe he’s not the handsome prick she always though he was (although he _is_ terribly handsome). They talk about work but mostly about art. He tells her how much he loves it and why he created a company around it. He also tells her she looks like a Vermeer painting muse and even though it’s the cheesiest thing she’s ever heard and she tells him this to mock him, she’s weirdly touched (and well, yes she must admit pretty attracted to him).

On Christmas’ Eve she stays at work long after her other colleagues. She doesn’t want to go home and spend Christmas alone. Steve’s office is still lighten up and she knocks on the door lightly. He’s there, just as alone as she is. They ordered food and wine and they sit on the floor of his office to eat and talk. They chat about his family, about hers, about his dreams of make a name for his own, about her failed wedding day and their desire to be their own persons, not the one their family wanted them to be.

Before she realizes he’s taking her back to his apartment in Manhattan to show her paintings he’s been collecting from young artists.

She discovers an apartment so big it could probably fit 5 times her small flat. No matter how much in common they have it’s still hard to grasp what his life must look like and she’s even more taken aback when she discovered his own drawings. He’s good, he’s a terribly good artist that has been held back by his name and his family all his life.

They have sex most of the night and when she wakes up in the morning he decides to take her to his family’s cabin upstate.

They spend 3 days there, just the two of them. Making love, talking, drinking and staying in each other’s arms by the fire. 

She wakes up on the 4th day and hears voices shouting in the living room.

She listens to them behind the wall without showing herself, it looks like he’s fighting with his mother. She is mad at him for not showing up for Christmas, for letting them down, the whole family and his fiancé who cried all night and they have been unable to reach him for days. Steve’s mother had to come herself all the way here to find him, which was unacceptable.

Wait.

His _fiancé_?

Peggy has never felt so hurt and shocked, and to be honest so mad at herself for believing him and all his lies. She takes her stuff and orders a Uber to come and pick her up without even saying a word to Steve or leaving a note. She runs off in the cold morning.

She sends an email to her manager to let him know she’s not coming back to work. She changes her phone number after Steve makes a few attempts to reach her. She thinks about moving but realizes he probably doesn’t know where she lives. It wouldn’t be hard to find it in the HR files at his company but she never hears from him again after that. He was just in for the sex and the lies and the disappointment. 

* * *

 

A year later she’s ready to celebrate Christmas again. She has a few friends now, a new job at a gallery she loves. She had a thing with a guy called Daniel during the Summer but to be honest she wasn’t ready to be in a relationship. 

She hadn’t think about Steve that much. At least that’s what she wants to convince herself of.

When she opens her Christmas decoration box, she finds the jumper in it. The same Ugly Christmas jumper that she wore the day they met. She shoves it back to the box.

The day after she gets a delivery. It’s quite a big parcel, it looks like a frame or a painting. She signs the delivery receipt and opens the mysterious package.

She stays in shock for several minutes when she discovers a portrait of herself, painted in the style of a Delft school painting. Like a Vermeer. 

There’s a note along with the painting.

_“I’ve been thinking about you all year. If you find it in yourself to at least hear me, please give me a call, there’s so much I need to tell you. SR.”_

His phone number is scribbled at the end of the note and she dials it without thinking.

They meet at the coffee place down his company’s building. She pretty much says nothing the whole time. He talks. He explains everything. Being engagement when he met her, being absolutely miserable and lost. He was angry with himself because he didn’t know how to get free of this life. Until he met Peggy. Until she showed him what strength really his, how to take your life into your hands and make it your own, even if it’s the hardest thing she had to do.

She thanks him for his honesty this time and leaves. She tells him never to call her again in a text right after.

On Christmas day, she’s having lunch with a couple of friends who are staying in the city. She’s wearing her Christmas jumper and can’t think about anything else but him.

She calls him and when he answers, she starts yelling everything she had wanted to tell him, how much he hurt her, how he took advantage of her loneliness, how he lied and made a fool of her.

She finishes emptying her heart and he’s silent on the other side of the line. He finally asks her if he can come to her place and she says ‘yes’.

They make love that night, a little angry at first, a little rough. But in the early hours of the morning when she is in his arms she doesn’t feel angry anymore. They discuss everything they need to. And she finally comprehends he was just as unhappy and lost as she was when they first met. She isn’t completely sure why this is happening between them, if they are ready for one another yet.

But since she’s taken the decision to leave her fiancé and left her family back in England a year ago, it’s the first time she’s ever felt free, here, now, in his arms.


	3. Peggy really likes Cap merch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy is a tease and she shops online apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr for Steggy Positivity Week 2017: http://founderofshield.tumblr.com/post/161359248662/what-on-earth-steve-claimed-as-he-walked-inside
> 
> This can fit in my multi chapters fic Do You Remember.

“What on Earth—” Steve claimed as he walked inside the main kitchen of the Avengers facility.

Peggy was behind the island, stirring a wooden spoon in a boiling pot, she was wearing an oversized men’s shirt with the design of his shield on it. A smug smirk was menacing to form on her lips and she fought it as much as she could.

“Hello, darling.” She answered, the smile perceptible in her voice.

“First of all, you are cooking.” He stated leaning above the island opposite to her to look inside the pot.

She chased him with her free hand. “Shoo!”

“And secondly. What. Is. This.” He pointed at her t-shirt, punctuating every word.

“Oh this?” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I bought it online. There’s a whole range of items barring the colors of Captain America.” She brought her hands on her hips in a triumphant pose.

“I though there were only kids’ clothing out there, not adults. This is ridiculous.” He shook his head.

“Oh no! No! There’s even Captain America costumes for _dogs_.” This time she couldn’t retain her laugh. “It’s brilliant.”

Steve walked around the island and looked at her from head to toe. She was actually only wearing the t-shirt. A terribly pleased smile graced her face and she looked absolutely beautiful with this oversized men’s shirt and her loose hair cascading on her shoulders. That woman was going to drive him crazy. 

Steve closed the space between them. She allowed his hand to wander up from the back of her thigh and lift her t-shirt lightly to slide under. 

“At least you’re wearing underwear.” He said breathing in the curve of her neck, his hand squeezing her ass above her panties. “You know people could see you here.”

“Oh I know.” She whispered turning her head to brush her lips on his. “But right now I’m cooking, so hands off.” 

Peggy pushed him gently with her hand on his chest.

“Patience Steven Rogers.” She said resuming stirring in the pot. 

Steve licked his lips, shaking his head without removing his eyes from her.

“Oh and by the way, I’m going to sleep with this from now on.” She concluded with a smirk.


	4. Applesauce volcano

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the war has ended, Steve and Peggy are happily married with two kids. Don't ask me how it happened, I don't know. Howard must have dug him out or something and then Steve got Peggy pregnant because they just couldn't keep their hands off each other (still can't apparently). Now they are dancing in their kitchen. Happy end. (brace yourself for the fluff) (so much fluff)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written because I found this vintage photography: http://founderofshield.tumblr.com/post/168435585581/steve-and-peggy-dancing-in-front-of-their-kids  
> This is Steve and Peggy being happy and in love, you can't tell me otherwise.

As soon as he walked by the door, little James came running towards him. The boy crashed in his legs talking fast and almost intelligibly about dinosaurs and shields. Steve scooped up his son in his arms.

“Don’t ask me, he’s been going on and on about you fighting against dinosaurs and other mythical creatures.” Peggy said, waving her free hand in the air. Her other hand was busy feeding their daughter, which resulted in putting more food on her chin and dress rather than in her mouth since apparently their daughter was unable to stand still ever since her father had stepped in the house.

“Dinosaurs? You think I can beat dinosaurs?” Steve looked at the boy with a bright smile.

“Nooo, not all.” James answered, shaking his head furiously.

“Not all? You think Daddy’s not strong enough?” Steve commented faking to be outraged. “I think I can fight  _ all _ the dinosaurs.” 

“Can we not talk about you beating dinosaurs. The children are going to have nightmares about it.” Peggy tried to whisper between greeted teeth so their kids wouldn’t hear.

That’s when Elisabeth decided to smash both her hands in the plate full of applesauce in front of her. Peggy opened her mouth in surprise, her blouse and face covered with the sticky dessert.

“Elisabeth Sarah Rogers, this is not allowed!” She pointed her finger at the girl, who was giggling anyway.

Steve tried to prevent himself from bursting into laughter at his always so well put-together wife now looking like a volcano of applesauce had exploded to her face. He tickled James before putting him down and walked to Peggy’s side. 

Putting his hand on her gentled, he stopped her from cleaning the mess.

“Here, let me.” He offered softly.

Peggy stood up, sighing deeply.

“Thank you. I don’t know how you do it. Every time I feed them, it’s like I was back in the trenches.”  

Steve dropped a kiss on her forehead and took her seat in front of little Lizzie, wiping the little girl’s face. James was still trying to get his attention, so he lifted him and sat him on the kitchen table next to him so the child could continue exposing his theories on how  _ Daddy ‘Merica _ and his shield would most definitely beat some dinosaurs but obviously not some other species. Steve had pretty much no idea which species he was naming but nodded along the story while finishing to give his sister dinner.

Peggy turned around from the sink where she tried to remove most of the food from her blouse. She watched Steve and their children for a while. He was indeed so much better than her. He’s always been a natural, taking care of them ever since they were babies. Not that Peggy couldn’t manage but she was away quite a lot for her work with Howard and naturally missed on some of the day to day care. 

She was happy that way though, not bitter, not regretful. Simply because she had Steve by her side, her partner in every sense of the way. He knew her work was important and he really loved being more present at home. He had fought in the war for more than a lifetime and given everything, including his own body to the greater good. Now he got the opportunity to be selfish and build the family he never dreamt of having before he met Peggy.

And let’s be honest, Steve was much more patient than Peggy.

“So how was your afternoon with the boys?” She asked, a smile still very present on her face from contemplating her beautiful family.

Steve snorted. “As good as you can imagine with these fellas.” Steve lifted his eyes to her. “We missed you by the way. Morita had an announcement to make.”

“An announcement? Of what sort?”

Steve looked at Lizzie and back at Peggy. “Of the baby sort.”

Peggy opened her mouth in surprise but quickly turned the astonishment in a bright smile. After all the horrors they endured in the war they all deserved a happy ending. 

“That’s lovely. But wait,” she frowned for a second, “who’s the mother?”

Steve laughed lightly. “A scientist apparently. I don’t know more but it seems like Howard did the introductions.”

“Well then, for once Howard’s shenanigans didn’t lead to out right disaster.”

Steve was done with the girl and sat her up on the table next to her brother.

“Are you calling me a disaster?” Steve asked while walking up toward the kitchen sink to put away the plate. He leaned in, bracing one hand on the counter to trap Peggy between it and his body.

“Howard didn’t stood us up, it was all us. And thank God, if he had we wouldn’t hear the end of it.” She rolled her eyes.

She put both hand on her husband’s chest and stood on her toes to give him a kiss on the lips. 

“But are they going to get married?” Peggy asked Steve.

“You mean that you don’t approve having a child outside marriage? Last time I checked,” he leaned in Peggy’s ear, “you were already pretty pregnant with James when he got hitched.”

His breath on her neck made Peggy shiver for a second before she regained her composure. They were in front of their children after all.

She pushed him slightly away with a wicked smile on her lips. “Steven Rogers, you better behave.”

“We better rehearse you mean!” He happily shouted, taking her hand and spinning her around in the middle of the kitchen.

“What—!” Peggy answered in surprise, letting herself spin around, with a motion they knew all too well now. 

When she landed on his chest, Steve pulled her close to him and the children started clapping and laughing behind them.

“Yeah, let’s rehearse for Morita’s wedding. Mommy and I need to practice dancing.” Steve spun her around one more time, to the delight of the kids.

Peggy started laughing, dropping her head back as she let Steve pull her into a silly dance routine on the kitchen floor, with no music whatsoever beside the encouragement of their beautiful children and the sound of her laughter. 


	5. CARTER MODELS Inc.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy owns a model agency in New York and Bucky pranks Steve into going to a modeling audition that will change his life in an unexpected way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This seriously got out of hand. It was supposed to be a short AU idea for an edit I just posted on Tumblr but it turned into a 2K monster. I just couldn't stop myself. 
> 
> I've barely edited it so I'm very very sorry if there's a billion typos. I'm too tired now and will revisit it again tomorrow.

Steve is a Brooklyn boy at heart and will always be. His mother’s died shortly after his father when he was 13. His best friend Bucky’s family welcomed him into their home and raised him like their son. But money is tight and Bucky and Steve end up living from odd jobs here and there. Steve’s dream is to get into NYAA, the New York Academy of Arts. But let’s face it, he’ll never get the kind of money that is required for the tuition.

Bucky and Steve are now bunking together in a one bedroom apartment in Bushwick. There’s a boxing gym close to their building and they go together. Steve’s good. Much better than anyone would have expected, himself especially. But he refuses to fight. He’s here to blow some steam as he likes to put it.

Soon he notices that women look at him differently. He’s put up muscles. He’s rocking a rugged look that has nothing to do with fashion but mostly because he doesn’t have Mrs Barnes on his back anymore to make sure he keeps nice and clean. He draws. A lot. He has this artist vibe that chicks dig, like Bucky elegantly puts it.

His friend is giving him hell with girls and Steve doesn’t like it. But mostly he doesn’t care for the attention.

So much that when Bucky tells him he got a job interview in a restaurant for him in Manhattan, Steve believes him and goes to the address his friend gave him the next day.

He quickly realizes that there’s absolutely no restaurant in that tall intimidating building on 55th and Park avenue. Especially not on the 47th floor.

CARTER MODELS Inc. That’s what the elegant golden plaque on the door says. Bucky had set him up for a modeling audition. Steve is ready to storm out when Peggy Carter, the founder and CEO of the agency, walks in the room where he’s standing awkwardly in front of a camera and four other people who are completely ignoring him. She’s like no one he’s ever seem. Beautiful, confident, there’s something radiating from her that makes him freeze in place. Everyone immediately lift their eyes from their phones and start preparing for the shoot. She has an energy and a presence that fills the entire room.

She stays while a photographer takes a few photo of Steve, asks him questions, some he doesn’t have the answer to. What are your measurements? How the hell should he know. This gets her attention. She drops her tablet and shushes her assistant who’s been whispering stuff to her the entire time. She watches him and he feels like he could melt on the floor under her scrutiny, but she doesn’t say anything.

Steve walks out of the office without realizing what had just happened. They offered him a contract for a quick job. An add for some watch company he’s never heard of. He has to be in Soho in a couple of days for the photoshoot. It shouldn’t last more than the afternoon.

He gets paid $550 for it. It’s more than he’s ever made in one single fucking day. So when they call back, he accepts the next job.

The first time he sees Ms Carter, as everyone calls her, again it’s when he goes back to the agency to sign an exclusivity contract. She asks to meet him in his office. He sits on the couch, uncomfortable. She tells him that he has something special, something that few people have and that she hasn’t encountered often in her career.

Steve shrugges and says he does it for the money to pay for grad school. She asks him if he isn’t too old for grad school. He answers that it’s never too late to choose who he really wants to be. She watches him pensively. _Something special_ , she says again before asking him to go and saying goodbye.

He quickly becomes a very demanded model. He starts traveling and almost loses his first contract overseas because he doesn’t have a passport. It’s the first time he ever leaves the US.

On a very big contract in Japan, Peggy Carter comes with him and the rest of the staff. She has meetings there with clients. On the last day of the photoshoot, Steve goes up to the hotel bar on the upper floor of a skyscraper with a breathtaking view of Tokyo. He wants to contemplate the city one last time before leaving. He even brings his sketchbook with him.

Up there he’s surprised to see Peggy Carter, alone, drinking, in a small cosy booth overseeing the city. He asks if he can sit down. They talk. For hours. Until the sun comes up. He tells her about his childhood, his passion for art, even shows her his sketches to her demand. Soon the night is over and Peggy gets up to leave. Their flight is in a couple of hours and she hasn’t revealed one single thing about herself beside her favorite drink. A Dirty martini with two olives.

A few months go by before he hears from her again. And he would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t disappointed. He even tells Bucky about her. Which ends up being a huge mistake. His friend, and his new girlfriend Maria whom Steve introduced him to, can’t stop bringing up Peggy. Maria worked at the agency for a while before finding a new job at Stark Industries recently. She knows Peggy and assured him that no one knew anything about her personal life in the office. Not even her favorite drink.

A few days later Peggy requests him to be her plus one at a diner party in upstates New York. It’s an important client he’s recently done a very successful campaign for and she wants him there.

The evening goes pretty well and Steve realizes that he’s getting more and more in his element with this type of people. The _fashion royalty_ like Maria likes to call them.

Around the end of the evening, they are both outside, nicely buzzed with champagne and martinis and Peggy lets him know that she has a car ready to take him back to Brooklyn if he wants. He tells her he doesn’t want to. A second later his lips are on hers and his hands squeeze greedily at the curves of her hips. He doesn’t know if it’s the champagne that gave him the courage or just the mesmerizing sight of her silhouette in the black dress she’s wearing.

She pulls away and stares at him with an unreadable look. _We can’t do that_. She says before turning her heels and disappearing back in the house. After a minute to pull himself together, he goes inside to look for her. He’s informed by the house guest that she has left the party.

Several days later he receives a text. _I’m in Tokyo._ Quickly followed by another one. _The view isn’t as beautiful as I remembered it without you here_. Maria and Bucky warned him that he might have made a mistake by kissing her. But now he knows they were wrong.

They starts texting. It soon turns into flirting and even a bit more. But she’s always on trips and client meetings when he’s not somewhere outside the country on a photoshoot.

He realizes he’s been doing this job for more than a year now. His face and even his name starts to be known outside of the fashion cercle. His social media accounts have blown up. He’s invited to events, parties and fashion shows where he never goes. Every time he asks Peggy if she’s going to be there but she responds negatively. She’s not exactly a party animal either.

One evening he looks at the brochure on his fridge. NYAA. He could have applied a couple of months ago. He didn’t have the total amount for the whole year but he could easily squeeze in contracts to earn what he needed for the last semester.

He wasn’t exactly sure why he didn’t do it. Something was holding him back and it wasn’t the money. That’s when his phone vibrated in his pocket with a text notification.

_I’m in New York._

_Me too. Where are you?_

_In the office._

Steve chuckles, of course she is.

 _Come over_ , she sends before he has time to ask.

When he walked on the 47th floor it’s completely empty. He goes to her office and has to stop in the door frame for a few seconds to look at her. She’s wearing an elegant and way too tight red dress, her hair is pulled in a messy bun and she’s barefoot, her feet propped up on the desk. She’s even more beautiful than he remembered.

She lifts her head to look at him. He walks slowly around the desk, taking his time and he sees how her breathing catches, her lips slowly parting.

They fuck on the desk that night. And again on the couch of her office, the very same one where he sat so awkwardly during their first meeting together.

When the morning sun starts casting his light in the room, she tells him he should go. People are going to come in. He tells her he wants to do less contracts. She agrees before he even explains why.

 _Tell me over coffee, okay?_ She cancels her first meeting and they get dressed to go to the coffee shop around the block. He tells her he wants to start taking classes, to prepare for his application at NYAA.

She tells him she can pull some strings and she could get him into Parsons if he wanted. The most prestigious Fashion, Design and Art school in the world. Steve can’t accept her to pay for it. She laughs at him saying that she won’t, she knows how much he makes and he can definitely afford the tuition. But she knows a few people in the admission committee if that could help him. He can keep working occasionally if he’d like, she can book him when he has time.

Steve needs to think about it. He’s not sure he wants to accept her offer. All his life he has fend for himself, he’s not used to accept favors from others.

They say goodbye to each other. She goes back to the office and he returns to Brooklyn, where Bucky harrasses him to know where he had spend the night. Steve ends up telling him everything and Bucky smacks his head. He would be stupid not to accept.

In the evening Peggy informs him in a text that she has sent a car to pick him up. She’s inviting him to her place.

A few weeks later he has spent more time at her place than his. His stuff are everywhere and she doesn’t complain about it. Far from it. She gave him a set of keys after only a few days. She’s trusting him with her place, her life and her story. Little by little she reveals who she really is. What she really wants in life.

She’s built herself from scratch. She grew up in a middle class environment in England. Her father and brother were in the military. She was raised with a very strict education. She was clever, very clever so her father forced her to get into academics at a very young age. She had to work her ass off ever since she was a little girl. She won scholarships, went to the best private schools, she always had to be the best, at everything.

When she graduated from university she just couldn’t accept a job at any of the companies that were offering her the best positions on a silver platter. She realized that she had been unhappy her entire life. She needed to get away from it all. She chose to come to New York and quickly meet a friend, Angie a waitress that dreamt of becoming famous. Peggy helped her find a modeling job. From there she became her agent and soon other girls where asking her to help them. Quickly she was managing an impressive portfolio of models and clients. Now she was at the head of a multi million dollar company and traveling the world. But her father never forgave her for giving up a more serious life than dabbling in the fashion circus as he always puts it. She hasn’t spoken to him for years.

Steve gets into Parsons. By then he’s also earned more than his parents ever have in their entire life. He doesn’t quite know what to do with this new life. But he has Peggy by his side now. She’s smart and blunt and gives him the best advices and motivation he needs to follow his dreams.

He keeps working for her agency from time to time. He has a name for himself and luckily that school and its teachers aren’t impressed at all to have a celebrity in their classroom. They treat him the same way as any other student.

After a year of secretly dating, an international ad campaign for one of the biggest french jewelry brand takes Peggy and Steve back to Tokyo. He proposed to her the last night of the trip, in the same booth where they got to know each other for the first time.

Back in New York, they make their official public debut at the MET ball and the press goes wild. But this world isn’t theirs. They buy a place in Brooklyn to start their newly married life. Bucky lives a couple of blocks away and he and Peggy have the most ridiculous fights about soccer versus American football.

Steve retires from modeling for good and graduates from Parsons. He has his own art studio on the lower floor of their brownstone house. He’s slowly becoming a respected artist.

When Peggy announces him she’s pregnant while she’s working on their kitchen, barefoot, her feet propped up on the table, Steve cries and she can’t stop making fun of him even though she’s never been more in love with him than this very moment.

That night he tells her it’s time to go back to England to make peace with her dad. She’s proven she could be her own person and her father should know what a beautiful, confident and extraordinary woman she has become.


End file.
